tl;dr – A reasonably solid accolade bestowed upon one of the luxury brand’s three ships.
Recently, the Ritz-Carlton’s Ilma yacht received a five-star rating from Forbes Travel Guide. It’s the first-ever given to a cruise ship.
From the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection Website:
“We’re delighted to announce that our superyacht, Ilma, has been named the world’s first Five-Star Cruise Ship in the Forbes Travel Guide 2026 Star Awards — an extraordinary milestone.”
Take this with a grain of salt (I’m not sure how what to believe nowadays), but Forbes ratings, in comparison to other publications, are determined by anonymous, professional inspectors evaluating up to 900 objective, industry-standard criteria. The process heavily emphasizes service (75% of the score) over facilities (25%), with ratings ranging from Five-Star, Four-Star, to Recommended. Notably, these ratings cannot be purchased.
So perhaps the service is actually super solid. Who knows. With every luxury brand under the sun (sorry, again) vying to launch a water product, competition is intensifying. The Four Seasons’ first yacht should launch this year, and Aman isn’t far behind as well.
Despite reports of financial troubles, there have been recent developments at the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection that could point toward the tide turning (sorry). The company launched it’s third yacht, Luminara and recently welcomed a new CEO.
Ilma primarily sails voyages in and around the Mediterranean and in the Northern Caribbean (think Miami to Bimini, Puerto Rico, etc.)
Though I’m not much of a cruise person, I am mulling taking the plunge (sigh) and checking out a shorter Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection journey soon.
